FDBusiness.com

Helped by market share gains in all regions, Carlsberg has reported a 47% rise in net profit to DKr3.28 billion in the first half of 2012 on organic net revenue up by 1% to DKr32.46 billion (Eur4.35 billion). However, operating profit at DKr4.05 billion was down from the DKr4.70 billion in the first half of 2011, due to decline in Northern & Western Europe and Eastern Europe offset by growth in Asia.

During the first half, the Northern & Western Europe beer market, excluding Poland, declined by an estimated 3-4% while the Russian beer market was up by an estimated 2%.

“Carlsberg achieved positive market share growth in all three regions which shows that the recent years’ significant efforts behind our international premium brands, local power brands, and within sales execution are paying off,” comment Jorgen Buhl Rasmussen, chief executive of Carlsberg. “It is particularly satisfactory to see a further improvement in our Russian market share which is a clear sign that our efforts initiated during last year are beginning to bear fruit. Excellent execution of EURO 2012 delivered very strong visibility of the Carlsberg brand. Sales and marketing investments were more skewed towards the first half of this year which, combined with the very bad weather in Northern & Western Europe, impacted profits for the first six months.”

Carlsberg expects full year operating profit before special items to be at the level of 2011 with slightly growing adjusted net profit.